CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Sitting in the middle of the Cortina course following her second fall in four days at the resort where she once dominated, Lindsey Vonn slammed the snow angrily with her right pole.
Then she got up and skied down to the finish — fortunate to have come away mostly unscathed again — and ready to assess the most difficult weekend of her comeback at age 40 with a new titanium knee following nearly six years of retirement.
“It’s just going to take a little bit more time,” Vonn said, “I need to be patient myself and I hope that everyone can be patient with me so that I can just keep my expectations in check and and just keep trying to get better every weekend.”
Vonn told The Associated Press on Thursday that she plans to retire again after next year’s Olympics, when women’s skiing will be held in Cortina.
“I need more training, I need more time. And I think it’s actually kind of a good thing that I didn’t do well this weekend, because it leaves me really hungry for more and also hopefully for next year,” Vonn said Sunday.
Vonn was on pace for a top-5 finish in a World Cup super-G when she fell on her left hip coming around a gate midway down. Then she slid down the course and came to a stop far away from the safety netting.
“I got a little bit behind the course and tried to pull it off,” Vonn said. “My skis kind of clicked together and I lost my balance.”
Vonn also avoided injury during a crash in downhill training on Thursday.
“There was a section where it was a little tighter and she got pushed a little bit and then she ran out of space,” Patrick Riml, Vonn’s former coach and now advisor with Red Bull, said of her latest fall. “It’s a part of the process.”
Vonn was fourth fastest in the second sector.
“And she was not even pushing hard on top,” Riml said. “She just needs to get more miles in.”
Home skier Federica Brignone won the super-G ahead of Swiss Olympic champions Lara Gut-Behrami and Corinne Suter.
Vonn, who holds the record with 12 wins in Cortina, returned to the circuit last month then was solid last weekend in St. Anton, Austria, finishing sixth and fourth in a downhill and a super-G, respectively.
In Saturday’s downhill in Cortina, a mistake toward the end of her run resulted in a 20th-place finish.
In her latest race, Vonn was fifth fastest through the second of three checkpoints before she lost control. In all, she was one of 10 skiers who didn’t finish a race held in flat light and overcast conditions.
“I was skiing really well,” she said. “In general this weekend was really positive but I couldn’t quite put it together. … Last weekend went so well that everyone’s expectations were really high. But this is a journey that no one’s taken before. So I’m trying to be patient.”
Added Vonn’s good friend Sofia Goggia, who won on Saturday: “She’s not used to being in certain situations anymore. … Ideally she would go out for more training, but her training sessions are races.”
Vonn is approaching the record for most World Cup races
The Cortina super-G was Vonn’s 400th World Cup race — 82 of which she has won, trailing only Mikaela Shiffrin’s 99 victories among women.
“It means that I have been here for a long time,” said Vonn, who made her World Cup debut nearly 25 years ago — in November 2000.
Renate Goetschl holds the women’s record with 409 races.
“I should hit that,” Vonn said. “Another record. Yeah!”
Vonn plans to race again in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, next weekend, and then at next month’s world championships in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria.
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